Don Draper reminds me, what should I be for Halloween? Awesome 60s housewife? Flapper? Awesome 60s housewife who moonlights as a flapper? The possibilities are endless.

So to get back to tonight. Anna Faris is hosting. Duffy is the musical guest. This is the first of the three episodes where I don’t really care about either the host or the musical guest. The only thing I know about Anna Faris is that she is often in movies that I could not care any less about, but she’s a funny gal, and as a gal, I find it necessary to root for the funny gals to maybe one day make movies I would want to see. And Duffy? Well. She’s kind of cute. And she doesn’t seem to like to wear pants.

Look Ma, no pants.

Pants are overrated. I’m hoping she sounds halfway decent, because I’m seeing her sometime in October. Does this mean she’s just going to be hanging around NYC pantsless for like a month?

It seems expectations for this show are not overwhelmingly high, besides the potential for a Tina Fey or Sarah Palin cameo. Also, I am sleepy and in a deep cold medicine haze which could end the reviewing quite promptly and unexpectedly.

Cold Open — Tina Fey is back in the house! Amy Poehler looks nothing like Katie Couric, but she has the head tilting and concerned blinking down. I feel like I can see the Tina Fey in her impression now, as opposed to just being a straight awesome Sarah Palin impersonation. But that’s okay, because Tina Fey is my hero. I love the thought of a league of Alaskans waking up to kick the Russians out. SNL knows that it needs Tina and Amy in these cold opens. What are they going to do when Amy is gone? There is a light constantly reflecting off of Sarah Palin’s glasses which is really irritating me. Sarah Palin does a good Willem Dafoe impression (Callback to last week! Yes!)

Monologue — Anna Faris has some of the straightest bangs ever. She also kind of looks like Britney Spears? Who knew? This was a really short monologue. I fear a quick cold medicine pass out.

Drive Home — Okay, this is funny, but I have nothing to say about it. A simple dinner with friends turns into the discovery that they cursed and were obscene and a million other things. The car blowing up at the end was pointless, though. Completely pointless. I liked where it was going, and then it went nowhere.

Debates — OMG IT’S CHRIS PARNELL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I don’t think that I can accentuate enough how much I love Parns. He is so precious and tiny. Fred Armisen’s Barack Obama impersonation is lacking in Barack Noise. It also needs to be a million times better in general. Armisen is almost as much of a master in impersonation as Darrell Hammond is, but no, this is just bad. Oh wait! There was Barack noise! They’re nailing all of the McCain points from last night: spending, spending, something I said 25 years ago, spending, campaign suspension, “Senator Obama” does not understand/is not aware of…” I’m not entirely sure what they’re having Barack do here, because there was plenty of humor to take from his fairly poor debate performance. This is lacking in Parns.

First Date — Kenan is in a sketch! You can see the lines around Anna Faris’ wig, and it’s throwing me off. And why is she singing? Is it because she looks like Britney Spears? Kenan’s singing! This is acceptable. Acceptably weird. I’m just happy to see Kenan do things.

Duffy – “Mercy” — She has some pretty bad choreography, and holy hell, her voice is higher than anyone’s ever should be. I don’t care if she’s all cute and Welsh and hates pants, she’s wearing a weird jumper thing and and this is just bad. Maybe I should be Duffy for Halloween. I can do these dance moves in my sleep, sing badly and not wear pants. Oh, she’s doing her little move with the other arm now. The right one must have gotten tired. Save me.

Weekend Update — The one thing on SNL that can never disappoint me. Smelt it v. Dealt it. Bill Clinton! He loves parties. Like the Democratic one. John McCain is “A Republican, a war hero, a great friend and hilarious and cool.” The thing about Darrell Hammond is that he completely disappears into his impersonations. You don’t see the Darrell in his portrayal. He doesn’t crack. Tonight, he almost cracked. Awesome. The Emmys joke is true. They made me hate television. The only thing that didn’t make me hate television?

Well, that and the Ricky Gervais thing.

Is this the first appearance of Kristen in this episode? Oh, Kristen. That was some fast talking amazingness on par with Mr. Subliminal. I have no idea what Amy/Seth were saying at the end of Update. Anyone?

Scores — Two sketches with Kenan?! Hoorah! Bill Hader is so sleazy. Where is Anna Faris? Oh, there she is. I expected the sketch to end with Scores going out of business. It doesn’t matter. This sketch was a tragic misuse of all involved.

Deephouse Dish — Wow, haven’t seen this sketch in awhile. And wow, Kenan is in three sketches so far. And hey, Andy Samberg still exists! They don’t like using him anymore, do they? Remember when he was the next big thing? Then Bill Hader proved to everyone that he was hilariousness in a bottle. I hope they show pregnant Amy Poehler singing something in spandex. Aw, first use of Forte. There are officially too many men on SNL, because boy are Forte, Meyers, etc not being used at all.

Googie & Renee’s Wedding Dresses — Kenan AGAIN! Why do I get the feeling that Kenan is now not going to be in the next like, 7 episodes? Casey Wilson is so pretty. This is the second reference to Facebook in one episode. Is Kenan obsessed?

Duffy “Stepping Stone” — More simplex dance moves. More high-pitched singing. Duffy really wants to be sultry. I can tell. Maybe if she stops the Wax On/Wax Off moves and lowers her voice an octave or two. She sounds better here, though. I guess. The lighting is neat. I feel like I am at a speakeasy.

German restaurant — Hm. Now that was a camera that was accidentally in the shot. I wish Will Forte dressed like a German boy every week. Poor Bill Hader, you are not as good as Anna Faris’ exboyfriend. “Hurricanes are great! I love them!” This was short, to the point and funny as has been the case for last sketch this season, but it was no Michael Phelps diet or Willem Dafoe trying to get James Franco to kill Andy Samberg. Still, funny. And a good way to end an otherwise droll ending.

Closing — Meh. Expectations weren’t high for a reason. Nothing really held my interest. Even the debate sketch missed the mark, in my opinion, though fortunately there was some Chris Parnell to make it better. With such strong, funny women on the show, I would wish that they would be able to write some strong, funny roles for female hosts, but that really didn’t seem to be the case this episode. I wonder how much of that blame lies on Anna Faris and her staff cooperation. who knows? I sure don’t. I’m disappointed. But again, Tina Fey and Chris Parns to the rescue! Amy Poehler is wearing a Clay Aiken shirt! Will Forte is wearing his full German garb still! Great.